In 2008, father-son duo, Bill and Will McGehee, formed The Genuine Georgia Group, LLC.  GGG’s sole purpose was to help sell and market peaches for their family farm, Pearson Farm.  At the time, Pearson Farm peaches were being brokered by a brokerage firm out of Charlotte, NC.  In the early days, Pearson’s peaches were being sold by both firms.  After the 2010 season, Al and Lawton Pearson hired GGG to market 100% of their peaches.  The determining factors were higher returns on peaches and the GGG’s ability to focus on preserving farms and not themselves.

 The same season a unique bond was formed between GGG and Duke Lane III, who was in charge of sales for his family’s farm, Lane Southern Orchard.  Will and Duke began to collaborate on marketing ideas, merchandising strategies, special packs and sales.  They decided to tackle a retailer in Florida together and sell the idea of a Ga peach instead of specific farm.  They quickly found out that the retail community was extremely receptive to this sort of collaboration.  By teaming up together, they were able to provide a retail partner what they wanted most:  a supply of Georgia peaches that was consistent.  The retail trade had been marketing peaches grown in the South as “Southern peaches” or “Eastern peaches”.  Georgia had begun to lose its identity as the Peach State.  The retail community began thinking a peach is a peach is a peach and this could not be further from the truth.  The Peach State now had some “mouth-pieces” that were 5th generation peach farmers touting the state’s signature fruit.